not sure
how to process what i just went through i'm sitting down to film this right now just to
i don't know maybe this is a sort of therapy or i don't know to remember this [ __ ] crazy
moment it is new year's eve it is [ __ ] new year's eve and i just had i don't know
one of the most terrifying things of my life happen but in a weird way i was just so calm
this is
i was calm let me say that i was calm when it technically happened and all the way home i think
it's just hitting me now you know what what could have happened let me just begin with i guess what
i was doing before this happened where i was just going to relax today i was just
going to explore the city for the first time i had just gotten into santa marta
uh yesterday afternoon and i had heard that the most popular beach in the city was um rododaro
which is a ways away from the historic center where i'm staying and initially i had taken
a taxi down there and everything was fine at first i will say i didn't like rotodaro i
think it's actually a pretty seedy area in and of itself so it kind of surprises me that it's
you know considered to be so popular and a tourist destination but on the way i had seen that there's
this beautiful walking path like through the mountains they just built it and i had read online
that this is something to do to take this walking path from the historic center
to rotodero beach so i started walking on this thing at about three o'clock and there was nobody
else on it and technically this breaks my own rule where usually when i travel i try and never
be in super secluded places unless you know i know the area super well but i just figured
because there was like a full-fledged highway that goes alongside the walking path that i'd be fine
i even thought that if i get tired i can just take a taxi because it is a long ways it's like a five
six kilometer walk on this path to the other side so i'm going along it everything is fine there was
even a few other people that had passed me but i was still just so surprised that there was nobody
on this beautiful path this amazing you know walk through the mountains it kind of dumbfounded me
i guess i know why now that there's nobody on there so it was about halfway where
this almost happened where there is a beautiful lookout point you know of
santa marta and you know the mountains and everything but below it there is you know
a neighborhood where obviously you know i i probably wouldn't go walking by myself
at any time of the day obviously you know as a foreigner you just stand out like a sore thumb but
i didn't think anything of it i i really thought that because i was beside this busy highway
that like why would anybody try something there so i keep walking down and there was this taxi that
was like coming up beside me and at first i just thought he was hassling me to like you know get a
ride you know why are you walking come get in the taxi oh my god i should have gotten in that taxi
because the guy wouldn't leave me alone like the taxi kept going up beside me and he was saying
stuff in spanish and i i couldn't you know understand him you know fully but for some
reason even then i got this weird inkling like he was trying to protect me and he was saying i
was being followed he was like he was holding up all the cars behind him you know trying to tell
me something and i just couldn't understand him and because usually you know you're used
to getting hassled in these countries you know you don't always know who to trust i
i thought that i was fine i thought that i could just keep walking because looking behind
me looking all around me i didn't see anybody i didn't see any other people so he drives off
and i keep walking i don't know less than a few minutes
and i thank god that for some reason this one part is just like frozen in my memory
where there is like a bus stop on the left side of the road and i remember there was a woman
that was standing there waiting for the bus but i went on the top part i wanted to keep
walking and literally as i was on this top part i hear somebody behind me and i turn around
and it's this young guy i don't know what age but i don't know like maybe even late
teens or early 20s or something and i could just you know feel like just bad
just bad vibes i don't know what he said to me but obviously i could tell that either he you know
i once again break my own rule where i i have tried to put it in my head that if anybody tries
you know to do something to rob you just hand over your phone just hand over your wallet it's
not worth it just like literally throw the purse you know at him i know that's what i was supposed
to do i don't know why it just like hit me where as soon as i saw him and he said something to me
i started to run towards him which i think he didn't expect that's the thing i think
he expected me to keep running away but because in my head i remembered that there was that bus
and i wanted to get off the higher part to like get on the highway to like get a car or something
like that because for some reason i just had the kind of feeling looking back now that i just i
don't think he just wanted my stuff i i just had a feeling like i had to get out of there i could not
you know be even near this person and have nothing on me i don't know what would have happened if i
would have just passed him my bag you know what would have happened but i just bolted like my
instinct was i turned around and i bolted past him he tried to grab me he almost got me but i
kept running and like i have angels like i swear to god i have angels or something looking over me
because the bus was there there was a bus and the lady that was waiting for the bus stop was
like just getting on it and i think you know as soon as the people saw me you know running they
understood what was happening and so they were like all waving me and waving me in
and um as i got in the bus that's when the guy pulled out of gun because i didn't see that
like when he was approaching me he didn't have any weapons but obviously i could tell that he
meant trouble but as i literally like jumped like hands in first to the bus he pulled out the gun
and pointed it at me and like i genuinely thought he was like going to shoot into the bus
and everybody in the bus even just like got down like everybody just got down and thankfully
you know the driver sped off like right away we didn't know if he was gonna chase it or if he had
other people you know lined up there because i guess what happened what i think that taxi driver
was trying to warn me of is that you know there was people i don't know if there was more than one
following me from underneath the path like they had climbed up that hill from you know where that
village is and i think they were tracking me as i was like walking down this bridge and
you know waiting for their moment so i didn't know if there was more of them i didn't know
you know if they had some other plan i just can't i can't comprehend how fortunate i was
to have that bus right [ __ ] there because if there wasn't he probably would have shot me like
the rule in these countries are that if you just hand over your stuff more than likely they won't
you know hurt you they just want the stuff so i don't know why i didn't do that i don't know why
i didn't just hand it over i just had this like gut moment instinct to just [ __ ] run towards
that bus thank god it was still there and that's that's how i got away so it is three days past
the incident and uh it has been a tornado of emotions i have decided that i am going
to continue my trip here in colombia i did consider you know just cutting things short and
going back home so to say but then i thought you know well what am i going to do at home you know
what what am i going to do there and in a way it almost would be extremely depressing to do that
because i realized that even if it's difficult to work through everything that happened
i don't want to let the situation define me you know i don't want to give it so much power that
now i'm afraid to go anywhere that i'm afraid of doing the things that i want to do and just
letting it have such a hold on my life like maybe i will change my mind later on but
right now i'm just telling you guys that that's where i'm at where as much as i've just cried
and been angry and had you know intense anxiety it's been really hard to sleep
i do know that i am a very strong person and that i will get past this and i will feel
better in time so of course i'm going to be making some changes to my trip
like for example i'm not gonna be filming a video here in santa marta i just you know
emotionally can't and you know pretend to be happy pretend that this is you know a city that
i would recommend even though you know later on here i'll actually mention
you know what i would recommend for anybody coming through here because this is a popular
place to come but also i've kind of downscaled what i'm going to do for the rest of my trip i'm
only going to go to four more kind of like areas of the country because i think i will just need
some more down time you know to just not overwhelm myself from moving to place to place shooting as
much content as i can i think i'm just going to take it a bit easier and also i'm going to try and
go to places that you know hopefully the chances of something like that are a lot less likely
it's tricky because in a way i feel like i have been overall you know doing things right
where i have taken so many safety precautions that i wouldn't normally take or be so hyper
aware of you know my surroundings that uh in other countries i wouldn't even given second thought but
when it comes to not having my phone out and not you know i don't know having a camera out like
that's kind of impossible because that's what i do like i'm a content creator i'm filming and
you know posting on instagram and doing all the social media of my trip how can i not have my
phone out and my cameras out at you know certain points in time i try and be very conscious of when
you know i take my technology out trying to be in safer areas and like when i was on that boardwalk
i literally thought that i was all alone you know i didn't i really didn't give it another
thought because it was just moving traffic and i thought nobody else around me and then i was
actually watching um some youtube videos about uh certain robberies that have happened in medellin
and there was some security cam footage of these two guys that were standing outside of their hotel
and were also robbed at gunpoint had like their phones and you know all their stuff taken uh you
know in under basically 30 seconds and there's two of them two big stocky men
you know robbed at gunpoint so unless you're traveling with like a bigger group or something
uh just having one other person with you male or female isn't necessarily going to exclude you
from having this happen and it sucks you know it sucks that um i have to make this video and have
to have gone through that experience because i really have been enjoying my trip here in
colombia like the majority of the people here have been absolutely wonderful i know would never do
you know such a thing and overall like i felt okay like i felt all right and i knew that coming here
had you know the risks associated with it as what literally happened to me like i knew that that was
something that could happen and i tried to prepare myself that you know if i was in that
situation you know i would just hand over my stuff i would just do it you know no ifs ands or buts
but honestly like like i said i guess in my prior segment where i was describing what happened
i still stand by my decision that for some reason i felt like that guy
like physically meant me harm that he didn't just want my stuff and just being isolated with him
was not a chance that i was willing to take so yes i literally risked my life even more by running
away from him but i really you know felt that that was what my intuition was telling me to do in the
moment and thank god you know everything obviously worked out in perfect succession but yes i still
stand by the fact that if a person is ever in this kind of situations and probably i don't know 98
of the cases just give them your stuff and they'll leave you alone and just to close off this video i
wanted to give you guys my take on uh santa marta because i will not be making a video
about here it's just it's too close to home right now i don't feel comfortable doing that
i think that if you stay in the like central hub of the historic difference like if you're
around the santa marta cathedral where there's all those restaurants it's a super touristy area
if you have your accommodation near there and you more or less stay in that area you're probably
not going to have anything to worry about it is a fairly safe area there's a lot of police
that patrol that area as far as rotodero beach i think i already mentioned that i was not impressed
i found it pretty seedy obviously i do not recommend walking in between rotodero beach and
santa marta's you know historic district and it's such a shame because that is such
a beautiful walking path and that you would think would be safe but obviously it isn't
and other than that um i don't know i don't know what else to say about santa marta
other than it is of course such a popular hub to go to all the other uh
really well-known attractions in the area like tarona national park
and minka and i think there's some kind of desert that's even near here so this is really
you know the place you stop before going to all those other places so if you do have to come
through here i would just say you know stay in the historic district i wouldn't say you need a lot of
time to explore the attractions that you know are here i think the nature stuff is supposed to be
you know much better than just staying in the city and that is it um i think that's really all i have
to say about this situation for now so thank you all so much for your support um i really do
appreciate the messages like as much as you know i do have to just put out that i don't want to
continually talk about this situation i don't want to you know have to you know be reminded
of it 10 times a day on a daily basis i really do appreciate you know the support i really do
um i actually never thought that you know so many people would message me after i put out
um that instagram post so thank you all you know for um reaching out to me and checking in on me
okay so you know we're getting emotional so um yeah thank you you know it means a lot and
just gonna keep trying my best and stay as safe as possible and um
keep being your own kind of beautiful bye guys